[Bryan K]

So here's my contribution.

Fluttering bird

[naturealbeing]

Bryan, Nice one! I wouldn't consider this one awesome, as it's got quite a bit of noise in it, but what I will say, is that I had no idea that a great blue heron shook it's body in the same way as a dog does. Quite a surprise!

Great Blue Heron, shaking the water off it's body, 1.20.10.

[boot up]

Flying long tailed weasel at Melakwa Pass. Its all about timing

Its all in the timing, and being in the right place at the right time. Or maybe hiking enough miles to eventually end up being in the right place at the right time.

[tigermn]

Berkley Park Mt. Rainier National park September 2008. Definitely got the adrenaline flowing a little...

Bear Sighting at Berkley Park. Mt Rainier National Park.

Bear Sighting at Berkley Park. 70 yards away from trail.

[naturealbeing]

On June 26th 2002 I came across a bear cub stuck inside a talus cave just below the lookout on Mt. Pilchuck. I managed to get the cub to back itself out and be free again.

Bear face, 6.26.02.

Here's a link to a slide show of some of the images I took that day. Here's the still images at Webshots.

[jeremybe]

I'm not sure these qualify as awesome. But I went to the park with my new lens at the time hoping for birds. I walked around, finally heard a chorus of crows. They were upset about something so I went to the noise and eventually spotted two owls. For the next half an hour I followed one of the owls as it flew from branch to branch. The experience was awesome.

[Sennin]

This Heron wanted to scare us off.

Discovery Park

[Tag Man]

I spied a bald eagle on the roof across the street from our hotel after the race.

Bald Eagle in downtown Seattle after St Pattys Day Dash 2009

[skottt]

Yaaaaaawn....

ZzZzZzzzzzz....

[kite]

last Saturday at Tunnel Creek

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[Wazzu_camper]

[iron]

[naturealbeing]

iron, I suppose it only fair that I should give the details. I tried finding the original story to post, but was unable to find it. Anyways, this is how it went down. I made a stop at the Verlot rangers office that morning and it was brought to my attention that there had been a siting of a bear cub on Mt. Pilchuck. I was told to be aware, be careful, and don't feed it, if I should come across it. When I reached the LO, there were people talking about a cub stuck in a cave just below the LO. I decided to check it out and sure enough there it was, It was trying to get through this triangle shaped opening and was only able to get it's head and a partial front leg out at a time. It kept at it switching from one leg to the other and appeared to be stressed and dehydrated by it's appearence and dry nose. I asked if anyone had some water and someone passed down a Nalgen bottle, I then opened it up and poured some water into the cap and knelt down to allow the cub to lap from the cap. After three laps it tried to bite the cap out of my hand and when that was happened, it managed to spill some water on it's paw. This cause the cub to retreat and gave me the idea to repeat the process in order for it to back down further into the cave. Well this worked fine, but I still needed to get it to back even further to get it out completely. This is where a borrowed someone's trekking pole and convinced the cub to continue it's backwards retreat out into the open. I should add that what had lured the cub into the talus cave to begin with was a Gatorade bottle and some candy wrappers. Once out into the open I was able to get quit a few images. For some reason the cub would not jump down from the rock slab that it was pacing on and that gave me confidence to stand in front and take the image titled " Bear Face". While holding the camera up to my face and focusing in at the wide angle setting I had no idea how close the cub had come. Once I lowered the camera I was surprised to see the cub 4 feet away. Anyways, Crystal was with me and she was wanting to get closer to meet this cub, but because of the large rocks and their placements, it was not possible for the two to meet face to face. All indications were that they were aware of each other, but neither expressed any fear or aggression and I felt confident that all would be fine. We left the area for awhile and when we came back the cub had moved from the slab that it was on and was now able to roam free.

[Sennin]

Humming Birds....In Belltown....who knew?

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[naturealbeing]

Squirrel Raids Trash Can, 3.5.10.